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A
ballot box was stolen from this building 152 years ago. Now it houses Gallery 5.
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When
I hear about stubborn politicians rejecting the verifiable truth and refusing to
compromise with their opponents, it brings to mind what tragedy can flow
from such failures in leadership. Such foolishness can lead to the chaos that we saw in the streets of Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. When such foolishness is harnessed and directed by power mad politicians it can spawn what we saw during the insurrection riot at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on January 6, 2021.
Moreover, these days, when we hear blustery politicians and perpetually angry activists fuming about
“second amendment solutions,” it should remind us that civilized people who were living in what were supposed to be democracies have sometimes lost their moorings. In its long history
Richmonders have witnessed so-called "solutions" of that ilk turn bloody.
What follows is a brief glance at the story of an instance that
prompted a feud to take root. It's a scary example of what can happen
when partisans lose confidence in the results of elections and shrug off court rulings.
The Bloody Interregnum of 1870-71 was the name
that stuck to the politics-gone-wrong squabble over whether George Chahoon or
Henry K. Ellyson was the lawful mayor of Richmond.
When
the five-year military occupation of Virginia that followed the Civil War
ended, on January 26, 1870, Gov. Gilbert C. Walker promptly appointed a
new City Council for Richmond. That body in turn selected Henry K.
Ellyson, publisher of The Dispatch — forerunner to today’s Richmond
Times-Dispatch — as the city’s new mayor.
However, George
Chahoon, who had served as Richmond's mayor during the last two years of
Reconstruction in Virginia, refused to recognize the validity of the process.
Although the transplanted New Yorker had a considerable following around
town, he was seen by Ellyson’s determined backers as a usurper of a sort. After
all, hadn't Chahoon served at the pleasure of the military overlords?
When
the followers of both men dug in their heels and chose not to back off, something had to give. Well, the
city itself fractured. As positions
solidified, the split became a chasm. Two separate city governments were
created by the process.
There were two separate police departments, two City
Halls, etc. Brawls in public became commonplace as the supporters of both "mayors "
sought to press their case on every street corner. Chaos, with gun-play
aplenty, ensued.
Notably, in spite of the fact that
Richmond served as the capital of the Confederacy during most of
the Civil War, the city was not without its Union sympathizers. In fact,
Richmond was quite divided on the topic of secession leading up to the war.
Thus, during and after the Civil War there were substantial elements present that
could have been characterized as pro-Union, or at least anti-secession.
Like the
USA’s 2000 presidential election, in 1870 the impasse eventually found its way into
court. On April 27, the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals met on the third floor of Virginia's Capitol
building, to hear
arguments from the two camps. To see the spectacle firsthand, anxious citizens shouldered their way onto the
balcony. However, under all the weight the balcony suddenly collapsed and crashed onto the hapless spectators below.
Widely known as The Capitol Disaster, when the smoke cleared the tragedy
left 62 people dead and 251 injured.
Two days later,
the court reconvened at City Hall. In due time, a verdict favorable to
Ellyson was returned. A month later, a citywide election took place. But
no clear winner emerged from that exercise, either.
This
time the contentiousness stemmed from the disappearance of a ballot box
from a precinct friendly to Chahoon. Same as ever, both sides went on trading accusations. Although Ellyson was certified as the winner by the
election board, he declined to serve, because he thought the election results were
still tainted, therefore inconclusive. The battle raged on.
Eventually
Chahoon just left town, perhaps in some part to avoid facing the consequences of several felony
indictments — supposedly of a nonpolitical nature — that had been heaped
upon him. For his part, Ellyson grew weary of the struggle and finally withdrew
from the contest.
The impasse was broken on July 1, 1871, with
the election of Anthony Keily as the one and only mayor of the exhausted
city of Richmond. Nonetheless, some of the actions of those who were most caught up in the
17 months of the "interregnum" left stains that perpetuated grudges
in Richmond for generations to come.
As a child
growing up in Richmond, I heard adventure tales from my grandfather
about this bizarre time. He claimed his salty old Uncle George, who was a
sheriff (somewhere), among other things, told him that most men in Richmond carried
guns on the street in those wild days, much like what we’ve seen in
countless western movies.
Formal duels and spontaneous gunfights
were not unusual in Richmond in that time.
The Bloody Interregnum was
a storm driven by factions of ruthless, hardheaded people. The truth stopped mattering. Blinded by crazy desires to
win, at any cost, neither tribe was willing to compromise or recognize the validity of any authority outside of itself.
During that reckless spell of 17 months too many folks in Richmond followed hot-headed trouble-makers willing to risk losing everything, just to get their
way. Those trouble-makers surely have their counterparts today.
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